RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as carboplatin and gemcitabine, work in different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Celecoxib and zileuton may stop the growth of tumor cells by stopping blood flow to the tumor and may block the enzymes necessary for tumor cell growth. Combining chemotherapy with celecoxib and/or zileuton may kill more tumor cells.

Compare the efficacy of carboplatin and gemcitabine with celecoxib and/or zileuton, in terms of 7-month progression-free survival, in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Secondary

Compare the response rate, distribution of survival, and failure-free survival time of patients treated with these regimens.

Correlate CYFRA and serum vascular endothelial growth factor levels with response and survival of patients treated with these regimens.

Correlate cyclo-oxygenase-2 and 5-lipoxygenase expression with survival of patients treated with these regimens.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are randomized to 1 of 3 treatment arms.

Arm I: Patients receive gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1 and 8, carboplatin IV over 30 minutes on day 1, and oral zileuton 4 times daily on days 1-21.

Arm II: Patients receive gemcitabine and carboplatin as in arm I and oral celecoxib twice daily on days 1-21.

Arm III: Patients receive gemcitabine and carboplatin as in arm I, oral celecoxib as in arm II, and oral zileuton as in arm I.

In all arms, treatment repeats every 21 days for 6 courses. Patients with responding or stable disease continue courses of zileuton and/or celecoxib in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Patients are followed monthly for 1 year, every 2 months for 2 years, and then every 4 months for 3 years or until disease progression.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 117 patients (39 per treatment arm) will be accrued for this study within 11-12 months.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years to 120 Years (Adult, Senior)

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

Histologically or cytologically confirmed non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of 1 of the following cellular types:

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Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00070486